Today we’d like to introduce you to Frank Prisinzano.
Hi Frank, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
It all started at the feet of my Sicilian and Neapolitan grandmothers
Watching those matriarchs whip up the most amazing meals for my extended family, and the power they had over us to be present with them at the table, because of their rare gifts, and their constant insistence on following family traditions, forever marked me.
There was always plenty of food for everyone and we were always encouraged to invite more. The end result was a constant cauldron of banter and ideas at the table.
I started thinking what if I could duplicate that feeling of warmth and welcome and great food with so much tradition, in a restaurant setting, and give the gazillions of people who didn’t have the luck to grow up Italian, that same experience?
Wouldn’t that alter how anyone in earshot of my businesses would do business?
And make the world a better place to go out to eat?
It’s nice to know at 12 years old after eating my first peach ever in Italy on my grandfathers land in Puglia, where exactly you want to start your career.
My grandfather had just died and left us his Massseria, with close to 100 acres of fruit and olive trees that needed to be sold in 1978, my grandmother took me to Italy that year because she knew I was the heir apparent to her traditional cooking, cooking that she spent her life perfecting and serving.
The explosion of that peach across my palate secured what I had already suspected, that I had a rare gift, one that could not be wasted or questioned, aromas and flavors were easy for me to memorize and then combine within my own mind. I had a natural sense of cooking science, of what would and wouldn’t work when dealing with heat. I could flow and create food in the moment from memory without even needing to taste anything, and if I saw someone make something just once, I could not only duplicate it I could make it faster and better.
With that passion, confidence and ambition I took my first job washing dishes at a local very popular pizzeria slash restaurant, and within a year climbed to sous chef.
From there I was flowing and everything just fell in my lap. I was working over 40 hours a week all through high school and over 60hrs a week during school breaks. I kept leaving restaurants for better restaurants until finally at 18 years old I was accepted at the best restaurant school in the world, The Culinary Institute of America, where I had the huge advantage of 5 years behind restaurant lines and a spider like sense in the kitchen.
Quickly I was at the top of my class and mentored by all the best chefs at the school.
Upon graduation I started a cycle of working 6-12 months for chefs I respected, saving all that money and travelling to Italy and France to eat and learn every year.
Finally at 30 years old I passed a space for rent in the east village and asked my father for $80k to open it. Without hesitation he lent it to me, and along with my family and friends, helped me to build and open Frank Restaurant on June 16th 1998
Within a month we had people waiting 2.5 hrs for a table and were doing over 200 covers a day with just 23 seats. Realizing that I had hit a nerve delivering a real Italian experience I went nuts and opened Lil Frankies the first real Naples pizzeria in the east village on January 2002, and the first Northern Italian restaurant in the east village Supper in April of 2002. All immediately also had long waits for tables and all were walk-in and cash only. They became a phenomenon and set the stage for the east village we see today.
I became addicted to opening new concepts and went on to build, design and conceptualize 6 more spaces, 4 of which I sold shortly after opening because of irreconcilable differences with partners and I now have no partners in any of my businesses
Covid came and all of a sudden real capital was available with loans to make a move finally in Italy, so I bought a palazzo in Scala 3 years ago on the Amalfi Coast and two years ago took a restaurant space and a nightclub space in Capri and then opened Francuccio restaurant and Phantom nightclub while we wait patiently for the change of use from residential to commercial on the palazzo to start building my hotel
My goals now are to immediately open a cooking school in Manhattan to give a brick and mortar space for all the students I am teaching my methods to for free on Instagram
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The obstacles are the way.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What sets me apart is an ambidextrous brain. I am both logical and creative. Allowing me to do every job myself and know how to teach and delegate . every job I need done. Also my sense of family has caused me to create extraordinary trust with all my employees, to foster a true family environment within each of my restaurants.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Eating that peach stands out because it sat me aflame.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Frankcares.com
- Instagram: @Frankprisinzano
- Youtube: https://YouTube.com/realfrank
